Birmingham's Railroad Park. Will it be a symbol or a symptom? (The Birmingham News/ Michelle Campbell)

A symbol is a precarious thing.

Ask Richard Scrushy, Birmingham's symbolic boy-made-good who turned, as fast as the winds of fortune, into a symbol of greed gone wild.

A symbol is a powerful thing to lose.

So when you hear all the whispers and the squabbles, the Steven Hoyt pronouncements that Birmingham should simply take over management of downtown's Railroad Park, it's enough to make you pray for balance.

Because the Railroad Park, fresh off national accolades and the nearest thing our downtown has to a symbol of good will, diplomacy and togetherness, might be in danger of losing its footing.

This park has become a symbol of what Birmingham can do when private development steps up and works with the city, when the city in turn reaches out to the county, the federal government and the people themselves.

If we're not careful, that symbol will become just another sign of a city so tied up in bureaucracy, ineptitude and self interest that it can't even agree to help itself.

It hasn't happened yet. All you have to do is see the activity, the diversity there to know the park itself is not endangered.

It is its symbolism that is endangered. And that symbolism just may be more important than the park itself.

Here's the issue with the park. Private interests raised more than $10 million for the park and the city committed $7.5 million. The county and the feds chipped in, and the construction budget topped $22 million.

Bureaucracy and politics hounded the plans at every step. Railroad Park dragged through the tar pit of Bernard Kincaid's slow-motion mayoral administration, skidded through the oil slick of the fast-paced Larry Langford years, survived two interim mayors and finally emerged with William Bell.

It's no wonder that process left some confusion. What's really a wonder is that the park opened at all.

Now the park and the city quibble over the city's contribution. The park thought it had all that $7.5 million to spend as it saw fit, but the city says $3.2 million it spent to demolish buildings at the park was part of the total. The park says it needs the money to pay off debt and keep the place running.

So here we go again.

Or maybe not.

Here, rather, is where we could really use that symbol of diplomacy and good will.

Because there's no way around it. Mistakes were made, both by the city and park founders. Handshake deals should have been put on paper, and park leaders should never, ever have signed off on the city's contributions if they didn't believe the city held up its end of the bargain.

But we have to put that aside if this park really is the symbol it's supposed to be, if it represents a new spirit in which working together really can happen.

Forget the finger pointing, for once. Both the city and the foundation must come together to fix this. The park -- if it is to be the cornerstone of development between downtown and UAB -- has to have a steady source of funding, like Vulcan Park, the Botanical Gardens or the zoo. And the private sector has to continue to do its part.

Yes, Birmingham needs a symbolic win, something to show we can come together on something, anything.

If we don't get it? Well, then Birmingham will have a very different kind of symbol.